National politicians have begun weighing in on the local disaster unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., where police shot to death an 18-year-old boy, touching off long, dark days of rioting, vandalism and what looks like the excessive application of police force.

President Obama today assured everyone that the Justice Department was on the case, investigating the death of Michael Brown. And that Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri, for whom Mr. Obama seems to have a high regard, is going to personally make sure the current situation calms down.
Of course, an investigation won’t address the deeper underlying issues here, like the iron ring of segregation and deprivation that surrounds so many American cities. And an investigation will do nothing to bring back Michael Brown.

“It’s important to remember how this started,” President Obama said. “We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances. He was 18 years old and his family will never hold Michael in their arms again.”

Mr. Obama said that “the local authorities, including the police have a responsibility to be open and transparent about how they are investigating that death,” which has not exactly been happening.

He said that “there is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting.” But he added: “There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights. And here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs and report to the American people on what they see on the ground.”

Nancy Pelosi, in a statement issued today, suggested an investigation of a larger scope, recommending that the justice department “also examine the longstanding issues between the citizens of Ferguson and their elected officials and local laws enforcement.”

And Rand Paul, the libertarian senator, called attention to the obvious racism that’s rampant in our justice system. He wrote in Time: “Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.”

He also took the opportunity to criticize the “the militarization of our law enforcement,” which he argued “is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm.”

Mr. Paul finds Big Government lurking behind every problem in American life. In this particular case, I can’t argue with him. The country needs to take a hard look at whether police forces in towns like Ferguson really need to bristle with so much arms and armor. Is it possible that weapons somehow create the urge to use them?

In the 1960s sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show, small-town Sheriff Andy Taylor would not allow his deputy, Barney Fife, to even load his cherished gun, knowing that would just lead to him shooting himself or someone else. That was funny. The situation in towns like Ferguson is not.